Unit Questions

This is a small FAQ that covers the questions regarding AoM’s units and buildings that seem to pop up fairly frequently.

What are hack, pierce and crush damage?

These are damage types done by different units.

Melee units, throwing axemen and Fire Giants all do hack damage. Hack damage is reduced by hack armor, which is denoted on the interface with an armor icon.

Pierce damage is done by all other ranged units, and by buildings that fire arrows. Pierce damage is reduced by pierce armor, which is denoted on the interface by a shield icon.

Some units do crush damage in addition to a melee or pierce damage attack. Crush damage does almost no damage to regular units, deals a little extra to myth units, and a lot extra to buildings. Units with crush damage are typically good building killers. Crush armor isn’t shown on the interface, however if you click a unit’s icon to see the detailed help, you can view its crush armor.

How does armor work?

It’s pretty simple. 40% hack armor reduces all hack damage on a unit by 40%.

How do upgrades work? They always give my units weird numbers.

Nearly all upgrades in AoM work on percentages. The Heavy Infantry upgrade for the Norse and Greeks, for instance, gives units +15% HP and +10% attack. This is why your upgrades don’t give rounded numbers like in AoE/AoK.

I got an upgrade but my unit still displays the same attack. Why?

Often the attack increase isn’t enough to increase the attack by 1. If this is the case, don’t fret – your unit’s attack has still been increased. The slinger for instance has only 3 attack. Getting the Copper Weapons upgrade increases that by 10%. It’ll still say 3, but it actually has 3.3 attack now.

How do armor upgrades work?

Armor upgrades do not increase a unit’s armor by a set percentage, like they do with other things. Instead, armor upgrades reduce ‘damage vulnerability’.

For example: Bronze mail reduces hack damage vulnerability by 10%. Say my unit has 30% hack armor, that means that he has 70% ‘damage vulnerability’. A 10% reduction of 70% is 7, so my unit’s hack armor becomes 37%.

This system means that it’s more beneficial to get upgrades for a unit that has little armor, than it is for one that already has lots of armor.

How do I find out a unit’s rate of fire?

At the moment we don’t know any authoritative way to find that out. *However* unlike in AoK, we don’t need to know a unit’s rate of fire. Why? Because in AoM, the attack displayed on the interface is the unit’s ‘damage per second’. If a unit has 10 damage per second, and it actually attacks every 1.5 seconds, then it would do 15 damage per attack. Pretty simple.

Do upgrades stack?

No. Percentage upgrades do not stack. An upgrade that gives +10% HP would give 10% more than the unit’s base HP, not its current HP.

The exception to this case is with armour upgrades. Armour upgrades are calculated by the existing armor, not by base armor.

How do attack bonuses work?

In AoM, attack bonuses take the form of multipliers. For example, the Egyptian Axeman has his damage against enemy infantry units multiplied by 4. This damage is then reduced by the allotted armor the enemy unit has.

Many myth units have negative multipliers when attacking heroes. Check the units section of AoMH to see exactly which, but generally you shouldn’t attack a hero with an MU anyway.

My MU’s special attack isn’t working on heroes

Heroes are immune to many myth unit special attacks (such as the Medusa’s stone gaze, or the Cyclops’ throwing attack) and are not affected by the special properties of other ones – a hero won’t be thrown away by a bucking battle boar, even if all other units nearby are.